The Problem Is Perfectly Clear

More brilliant commentary from Paul Krugman's blog.

His quick summary of the hawk / Republican / idiot position with regard to current monetary policy:

[It] is just like in the 1970s, except for the lack of inflation thing. It’s completely ineffective, which means that we must stop it immediately, or else this ineffectual policy will somehow have vastly negative effects on something or other (not clear what). But the trouble is that people think stopping it would be too costly, whereas in fact it would have no cost, as illustrated by the really bad things that just happened when the Fed indicated that it might indeed stop the policy. Also, the sluggishness of the recovery somehow proves that money has been too loose.

(If, since you don't have a PhD in economics, that sounds to you like gobbledygook, that's because it is. But we need to either keep doing it, stop doing it, or do more of it immediately, otherwise socialism and the terrorists will certainly win.)